Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Tuesday, May 19. 2009

God Talk, Part 2

From Stanley Fish's God Talk, Part 2, in the NYT, a quote:



Pking gets it right. “To torpedo faith is to destroy the roots of . . . any system of knowledge . . . I challenge anyone to construct an argument proving reason’s legitimacy without presupposing it . . . Faith is the base, completely unavoidable. Get used to it. It’s the human condition.” (All of us, not just believers, see through a glass darkly.) Religious thought may be vulnerable on any number of fronts, but it is not vulnerable to the criticism that in contrast to scientific or empirical thought, it rests on mere faith.


Posted by The Barrister in Religion, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 15:07 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

It is quite bizarre to attack reason using reason (by the argument of circular reasoning) -- then attempt to promote faith... using reason.

Reason is man's means of survival -- our equivalent of a wild animal's fangs and claws.

To make an analogy using the same language: I challenge anyone to construct an argument proving truth’s legitimacy without presupposing it... (then follow with a rationalization for falsehood).
#1 Spork (Link) on 2009-05-20 10:08 (Reply)
You just made my head spin...but I am not very smart.
#1.1 Bird Dog on 2009-05-20 10:53 (Reply)
Thank you for the "truth" analogy. The circle logic in that logic was nagging at me, also. For some reason (heh) I couldn't get my head out of the "reason" rut.
#1.2 KRW on 2009-05-20 12:49 (Reply)
Sorry about the reason ramble. Maybe I should opt for clarity over lame humor.

But that's sort of how the quote read to me... using circular logic to attack reason, then -- once attacked -- attempting to use reason to support non-reason.
#1.2.1 Spork (Link) on 2009-05-20 13:55 (Reply)
Not a reason ramble, far from it, for me anyway. I enjoyed your reasoning as I found it very reasonable. :)
#1.2.1.1 Luther McLeod on 2009-05-20 15:39 (Reply)
No, I thought you were more on and less ramble than the original post.
#1.2.1.2 KRW on 2009-05-20 22:36 (Reply)
Here's yet another point of view.

http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2009/05/19/whats-a-straw-man-of-a-straw-man-fish-features-eageltons-rediscovery-of-religion/#comments

Lots to think about in such a post... not all of it immediately evident.
#2 Luther McLeod on 2009-05-20 22:35 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.